Vienna: 4.06.2004
Yesterday was pure work -- nothing interesting.
Yesterday was pure work -- nothing interesting.
And today was one long day, and very nice too.
.Sometimes things work out in funny ways. Rashid knew that Vienna was just an hour’s drive from Brat and had thought we can hop across on the Sunday we had at Brat. Actually, in retrospect, we could not have done that as our visa for Slovakia was only single-entry! Travelling through Vienna was the only way we could have seen Vienna!
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We had woken at 2.30 am to catch our 5.30 am flight to Vienna (No way we would have risked missing it). Reached Wien (the German name for Vienna) at 6.30 am. Even the tourist information counters were closed. Talking to taxi-drivers and studying the displayed sight-seeing info, we could make out that city sight-seeing tours would be leaving from the Opera House at city centre 9.30 am onwards.
.First, we dumped our luggage in the cloakroom. Second, we had a quick breakfast. Third, we caught a bus to city centre and walked for half-an-hour to the Opera House.
.We had been disappointed with the weather when we had landed as it was cloudy and the ground was thoroughly wet. But then it HAD stopped raining and enabled us to go around in peace, for which we finally became grateful.
.The bus dropped us at the city centre and we started looking for the Opera House. Nothing like a walk to get a feel of a city. Old and new architecture next to each other. Wide roads. Electric buses and trams (just love trams!). Lots of trees. Suddenly one small forest by the side of the road. A small lane on the central median for cyclists. People shaking sleep from their eyes at 9.00 am while walking briskly to office. Peak office times but thin crowds. Unlike Warsaw, people don’t walk much. They would rather take a bus, tram or underground. Whenever we asked for directions to the Opera House, we were encouraged to take the underground Red Line. “You want to WALK?” they’d ask and find real difficulty in giving walking directions. “Please walk for two stops”’ they’d say, “and turn right.”.
.......Sometimes things work out in funny ways. Rashid knew that Vienna was just an hour’s drive from Brat and had thought we can hop across on the Sunday we had at Brat. Actually, in retrospect, we could not have done that as our visa for Slovakia was only single-entry! Travelling through Vienna was the only way we could have seen Vienna!
.
We had woken at 2.30 am to catch our 5.30 am flight to Vienna (No way we would have risked missing it). Reached Wien (the German name for Vienna) at 6.30 am. Even the tourist information counters were closed. Talking to taxi-drivers and studying the displayed sight-seeing info, we could make out that city sight-seeing tours would be leaving from the Opera House at city centre 9.30 am onwards.
.First, we dumped our luggage in the cloakroom. Second, we had a quick breakfast. Third, we caught a bus to city centre and walked for half-an-hour to the Opera House.
.We had been disappointed with the weather when we had landed as it was cloudy and the ground was thoroughly wet. But then it HAD stopped raining and enabled us to go around in peace, for which we finally became grateful.
.The bus dropped us at the city centre and we started looking for the Opera House. Nothing like a walk to get a feel of a city. Old and new architecture next to each other. Wide roads. Electric buses and trams (just love trams!). Lots of trees. Suddenly one small forest by the side of the road. A small lane on the central median for cyclists. People shaking sleep from their eyes at 9.00 am while walking briskly to office. Peak office times but thin crowds. Unlike Warsaw, people don’t walk much. They would rather take a bus, tram or underground. Whenever we asked for directions to the Opera House, we were encouraged to take the underground Red Line. “You want to WALK?” they’d ask and find real difficulty in giving walking directions. “Please walk for two stops”’ they’d say, “and turn right.”.
At the Opera House, where a few guys were peddling city tour tickets on an empty sidewalk, we chose a tour that combined a few city visits with a cruise on the Danube. That, we thought, would be a better experience than seeing some historical buildings.
.We saw a fair bit of the city while driving through (couldn’t take many pics on the run, though). Narrow roads; cobbled streets; tram and bus brushing each other; cafes setting out tables and chairs; small cars; heavy traffic. Why heavy traffic? Because next week Thursday is a holiday (today is the preceding Friday). So? So a lot of people have taken the WEEK OFF! And are going out of town. So? So heavy preparatory shopping on Friday! I tell you, the Europeans are really serious about their leisure!
.On the inland part of the tour, we first went to see some buildings designed by a known architect and conceptual designer named Hundertwasser. His houses and streets had the hallmark of colourful walls, uneven shapes (he loved spirals and called straight lines “the devil’s tools”) and even trees on the roof! One such famed house (a low-cost housing actually, with people living there) was shown to us. Looked like a house out of a nursery rhyme! He had also designed a ‘garbage incinerating plants’ which is purple and gold and slanted windows, with a gold sphere set in the middle of a tall chimney! Quite freaky. He died four years ago, but not before designing a boat as well, on which later cruised on the Danube. Luckily no trees on the roof of that boat!.
.......We saw a fair bit of the city while driving through (couldn’t take many pics on the run, though). Narrow roads; cobbled streets; tram and bus brushing each other; cafes setting out tables and chairs; small cars; heavy traffic. Why heavy traffic? Because next week Thursday is a holiday (today is the preceding Friday). So? So a lot of people have taken the WEEK OFF! And are going out of town. So? So heavy preparatory shopping on Friday! I tell you, the Europeans are really serious about their leisure!
.On the inland part of the tour, we first went to see some buildings designed by a known architect and conceptual designer named Hundertwasser. His houses and streets had the hallmark of colourful walls, uneven shapes (he loved spirals and called straight lines “the devil’s tools”) and even trees on the roof! One such famed house (a low-cost housing actually, with people living there) was shown to us. Looked like a house out of a nursery rhyme! He had also designed a ‘garbage incinerating plants’ which is purple and gold and slanted windows, with a gold sphere set in the middle of a tall chimney! Quite freaky. He died four years ago, but not before designing a boat as well, on which later cruised on the Danube. Luckily no trees on the roof of that boat!.
We went up a hill to see a panoramic view of the city, which was quite dim because of the weather. But though unfit for panoramic views, the weather was perfect for a climb up the hills of the northern woodlands, which we negotiated in order to reach the point. Lush, lush green; single-lane winding road, cobbled, going up; fog here and there; smell of conifers; air like ice cream; too beautiful for words. The Vienna Woods locality is three times the size of Vienna and in summer like now and in autumn when all the colours bloom, they are a favourite outing spot for family and for groups.......
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The hill we went up was originally quite far away from the original Vienna and was vineyard territory. There was small village (which we passed through) called Grinzing that specialised in wine-growing and pressing. In the midst of expanding urban Vienna, these village houses have not been disturbed and are quaint anachronisms in the midst of vehicle showrooms and opulent garden-houses.
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These garden-houses are generally a second property of those living in apartments in Vienna, a weekend getaway place where they can grow some vegetables in peace.
.We came down the hill, past a couple of dimmer panoramic views, listening to Strauss’s “Vienna Woods”. Talking of Strauss, there are at least 20 ‘Beethoven Houses’ in Vienna, because apparently in the 35 years that he spent in the city, he changed houses 60 times!! One of his declared houses adjoin one in which Albert Einstein used to live, which was pointed out to us while going up the hill.
.The bus unloaded us at the jetty where our Hundertwasser boat was waiting. It was a 2-level floating restaurant. It looked like that, I’m sure, to the goras at least, because as soon as they were aboard, they attacked the tables, grabbed the menus and started ordering beer and wine and finger chips and caviar and what not! No enjoying the breeze, or the sights, or the waves slapping the hull. We went to the back rail, accompanied by a few goras with cameras, who did not seem too happy to be shouldering this camera-wielding responsibility instead of being under cover where the tinkle of glasses were threatening to drown the heavy throb of diesel engines.
.......
These garden-houses are generally a second property of those living in apartments in Vienna, a weekend getaway place where they can grow some vegetables in peace.
.We came down the hill, past a couple of dimmer panoramic views, listening to Strauss’s “Vienna Woods”. Talking of Strauss, there are at least 20 ‘Beethoven Houses’ in Vienna, because apparently in the 35 years that he spent in the city, he changed houses 60 times!! One of his declared houses adjoin one in which Albert Einstein used to live, which was pointed out to us while going up the hill.
.The bus unloaded us at the jetty where our Hundertwasser boat was waiting. It was a 2-level floating restaurant. It looked like that, I’m sure, to the goras at least, because as soon as they were aboard, they attacked the tables, grabbed the menus and started ordering beer and wine and finger chips and caviar and what not! No enjoying the breeze, or the sights, or the waves slapping the hull. We went to the back rail, accompanied by a few goras with cameras, who did not seem too happy to be shouldering this camera-wielding responsibility instead of being under cover where the tinkle of glasses were threatening to drown the heavy throb of diesel engines.
.This was Danube proper, not too blue, in fact distinctly muddy. Perhaps the weather had something to do with it. We passed churches and important-looking buildings like the Millenium Tower, the Unesco building, the ‘garbage burner’ again from close by, and so on. After a while, we left the Danube proper and entered the Danube Canal through a lock.
.The Danube Canal was originally a tributary of the Danube and it used to regularly flood its banks, like an incontinent child. The city authorities, after heavy soul-searching, decided to make the distributary into a controlled canal, and drop its water-level by around 4 metres. They managed this by introducing two lock gates at the mouth of the canal, in order to maintain the level-difference while allowing launches to pass through.
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We were finally released near St. Stephen’s Square, a huge church. We promptly ate a pizza, to start with. Then we walked down to the metro-station to catch a 16-min non-stop train to the airport (cost 9 Euro). The metro station is like a supermarket by itself! The train departure space has check-in counters (hand baggage only) for Austrian Airlines. Too good!.
.......The Danube Canal was originally a tributary of the Danube and it used to regularly flood its banks, like an incontinent child. The city authorities, after heavy soul-searching, decided to make the distributary into a controlled canal, and drop its water-level by around 4 metres. They managed this by introducing two lock gates at the mouth of the canal, in order to maintain the level-difference while allowing launches to pass through.
.
We were finally released near St. Stephen’s Square, a huge church. We promptly ate a pizza, to start with. Then we walked down to the metro-station to catch a 16-min non-stop train to the airport (cost 9 Euro). The metro station is like a supermarket by itself! The train departure space has check-in counters (hand baggage only) for Austrian Airlines. Too good!.
..At the airport, we enquired with the Bratislava bus counter and learnt that we had only 15 mins to wait! We collected our bags and waited for the bus. After the European Union, there is no visa requirement for EU-member citizens, although they have to carry their passport. So life is good for Slovaks! There was a Pakistani businessman (around 50) with a Slovak girl (around 25) who he introduced to us as his wife. She was going back to Bratislava while he was returning to Pakistan. The nature of the marriage seemed strange. A Bangladeshi luggage-handler who had sort of adopted us explained that such ‘wives’ were quite common here. “As Bahrain is to Saudi’” he quoth. “so is Bratislava to Vienna.”
.In one hour flat we were in Bratislava. Even the stamping of our passports took hardly any time. Road travel is actually quite easy in these European and semi-European parts. Very convenient.
.So ended our Vienna visit, a gift from God.
.In one hour flat we were in Bratislava. Even the stamping of our passports took hardly any time. Road travel is actually quite easy in these European and semi-European parts. Very convenient.
.So ended our Vienna visit, a gift from God.
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